Recovering money from the assets of those who died after relying on medicaid in their final years is part of the estate recovery process the federal government requires of states. Critics of the program argue that it recoups roughly 1 per cent of the $150 billion Medicaid spends on long-term care each year. They also argue that Medicaid does not warn people that sign up to Medicaid that large bills and claims to their property could be passed onto their family once they die.